Today, the 25th November, is marked around the world as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. In Britain and globally, epidemic levels of violence against women and girls remain a stain on our society which capitalism and it’s institutions are incapable eradicate it.
The statistics on gendered violence in Britain today speak for themselves:
• Four out of five young women have experienced sexual harassment.
• One in five women have experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.
• Half of all young women experience controlling behaviour in an intimate relationship.
• 41% of girls aged 14 – 17 experience sexual violence from a partner.
• Almost two-thirds of women and girls aged 13 – 21 suffer some form of sexual harassment at school or college.
• Approximately 85,000 women are raped and over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted in England and Wales every year.
• Domestic Violence will affect one in four women, and it has more repeat victims than other crimes.
• In England and Wales alone, 2 women are killed every week by a partner or former partner.
• Women are more than 9 times as likely to be killed by a partner or former partner.
• Every week 3 women commit suicide because of domestic violence.
• The police receive a domestic violence-related call every 30 seconds even though less than 24% of domestic violence crime is reported to the police.
• The overwhelming majority of domestic abuse cases are not prosecuted and very few end in conviction.
The UK government has launched a campaign called “Enough” in an attempt to address these issues. Although the campaign is important for women—helping to identify what constitutes abuse and how to get help—it definitely is not “enough.” Women’s organisations, such as charities and shelters, have continued to be de-funded in recent years, leaving women vulnerable to abusers, with working-class women bearing the brunt of the burden.
Furthermore, the continued spread of misogynistic ideology among young working class people through social media, such as in Podcasts & across platforms like TikTok, perpetuates the traditional roles women and men have in society, leading to the normalisation of violence against women who don’t always fulfil those roles. While this ideology is being propagated, women’s rights are also under threat. All over the world, conservative policies are being carried out forcing women and girls to struggle for their basic rights.
The YCL acknowledges that capitalism is the issue. Violence against women and girls is not an unavoidable or natural occurrence. The oppression of women is inherent in a system that recognises women as a product of their sexual and caregiver roles; this conflict economically, socially, and politically divides the working class. That women’s liberation can only be achieved through a united class struggle against the economic system that serves as its foundation.
Britain’s young communists are calling for:
• An increase of healthy sexual and personal education, in order to erase the development of violence against women and girls in schools, colleges and universities.
• Increased and ring-fenced funding and support for victims of gender-based crimes and violence.
• New and efficient mechanisms to detect, investigate and prosecute domestic violence, harassment, spiking and violence against women in general.
No to violence against women.
A Women’s place is in the Revolution!
In comradeship
Central Committee & Women’s Commission
Young Communist League
25 November 2022
London, Britain